RAAF wraps up US air combat training exercises
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has successfully completed three weeks of high-intensity air combat training alongside force...
Sacre bleu! Aussie, French Top Guns put through their paces over Top End
Royal Australian Air Force F-35As have conducted a series of training exercises alongside French Navy aircraft in the Top End. ...
Raytheon completes successful test of LTAMDS and Patriot PAC-2 missile
Raytheon has successfully completed another complex live-fire test of its Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS), mark...
PLA task group in Australian waters, as Chinese military drop flares onto RAAF aircraft
The Australian government has cited “unsafe and unprofessional” behaviour of Chinese military forces after flares were...

ARH Tiger acquisition under the microscope

arh tiger acquisition under the microscope

Senate estimates has seen the Airbus ARH Tiger aircraft heavily scrutinised, with one senator questioning if the original acquisition was a “poor decision”.

Senate estimates has seen the Airbus ARH Tiger aircraft heavily scrutinised, with one senator questioning if the original acquisition was a “poor decision”.

During Tuesday's Senate estimates, Director General Army Aviation Systems Jeremy King and Chief of Army Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, DSC, AM, fronted the Senate to discuss Australia's Tiger armed reconnaissance helicopters, with many questions centering around the aircraft's Final Operational Capabilities (FOC).

King stated there are nine caveats associated with the final operating capability but stressed "many of those issues are identified as future upgrades as opposed to deficiencies with the aircraft".

LTGEN Campbell also noted that, although the aircraft has reached FOC and could be deployed on operations, "there are nine specific areas of capability that have not met that level we anticipated when we purchased the aircraft".

"We would have to consider either the nature of the operations or the flight envelope in which the aircraft was operating in order to find other ways to mitigate or prevent those lesser capability outcomes being of concern to us on operations," LTGEN Campbell said.

In what would be considered a damning assessment of the aircraft, LTGEN Campbell also noted the Tiger ARH is unlikely to reach its original target.

"I don't think it will be achieving its original target, I do think it has the potential to achieve its budgeted target," he said.

The aircraft has been under fire since last year, when an Australian National Audit Office report revealed the Tigers are not available in sufficient numbers to give pilots the mandated minimum 150 flight hours a year.

Entry to service was scheduled for 2009 but was delayed by seven years, and replacements of the aircraft are already set to begin in the mid 2020s, but Defence maintains there will be no capability void.

"The expectation is, as laid out in the white paper, that there would be a replacement capability that would, as with all our capabilities, seek to bring it in to rise in effect as we were drawing out the Tiger, so as to maintain a capability," LTGEN Campbell told Senate estimates.

The acquisition of 22 of the Tiger helicopters cost $1.1 billion (2001 price), with an additional cost of $397 million (2001 price) for a through-life support contract.

 

 

You need to be a member to post comments. Become a member for free today!